Humans
CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
This third series of the thoughtful British science-fiction drama continues to benefit from a narrowing of focus; the big-name American actors and slightly strained global perspective have gone, but the thematic ambition has been retained. Less wilfully obscure than Sky Atlantic’s Westworld and more affecting, Humans instead keeps a tight focus on emotion and relationships, whether the characters concerned are flesh and blood or gears and circuits. It can be heavy-handed with the allegories, certainly, but it’s never chilling or humourless – and leading synth performers Gemma Chan, Ivanno Jeremiah and Emily Berrington are as uncanny as ever.
Mark Bonnar, too, is proving a handy addition to the cast as Neil, Laura’s (a brilliant Katherine Parkinson) professional antagonist and love interest – Bonnar’s history of playing characters with shifting loyalties comes in handy as Neil first opens his heart and then hardens his stance on the Dryden Commission. Mia (Chan), meanwhile, is on a one-synth mission to demonstrate coexistence is possible by moving into a hostile housing estate, and Leo (Colin Morgan) struggles with the realities of being human.
Gabriel Tate